Captains Beach Lagoon

Our water quality monitoring program has shown Captains Beach Lagoon to have excellent water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.

Captains Beach Lagoon, or Captains Lagoon, is a small estuarine creek with an intermittently closed entrance that flows into Jervis Bay and is part of the Jervis Bay Marine Park.

The catchment of this lagoon lies entirely within the Jervis Bay Territory.

Estuary health and features

Water quality

As part of our water quality monitoring program we assess the water quality and ecosystem health of an estuary using a range of relevant indicators. We sample a subset of the estuaries between Wollongong and the Victorian border every 3 years. The most recent sampling in Captains Beach Lagoon was completed over the 2011–12 summer when 2 sites were sampled on a monthly basis.

Captains Beach Lagoon water quality report card for algae and water clarity showing colour-coded ratings (red, orange, yellow, light green and dark green, which represent very poor, poor, fair, good and excellent, respectively). Algae is rated 'good' and water clarity is rated 'excellent' giving an overall rating of 'excellent' or 'A'.

This report card represents 2 water quality indicators that we routinely measure: the amount of algae present and water clarity. Low levels of these 2 indicators equate with good water quality.

The report card shows the condition of the estuary was very good with:

  • algae abundance graded good (B)
  • water clarity graded excellent (A)
  • overall estuary health graded excellent (A).

Find out more about our estuary report cards and what each grade means. Read our sampling, data analysis and reporting protocols and find out how we calculate these grades.

Physical characteristics

Estuary type: Creek

Entrance
location 		Latitude (ºS) –35.13
Longitude (ºE) 150.71
Catchment area (km2) 3.1
Estuary area (km2) 0.05
Estuary volume (ML) 12.6
Average depth (m) 0.3
Notes: km2 = square kilometres; m = metres; ML = megalitres.

Water depth and survey data

Bathymetric and coastal topography data for this estuary are available in our data portal.

Land use

The entire catchment of Captains Beach Creek is forested. It is located to the south of the Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Creswell establishment in Jervis Bay Territory, which is administered by the Australian Government.

National and marine parks

  • There are no conservation areas in the Captains Beach Lagoon catchment.
  • Captains Beach Lagoon is part of the Jervis Bay Marine Park. The entrance of the estuary is included in the habitat protection zone for the bay.
Captains Beach Lagoon

Local government management

Local councils manage estuaries within their area unless the estuary is attached to a marine park. This estuary is part of the Jervis Bay Territory, which is administered by the Australian Government.